Kingsland honors veterans with parade, recognition ceremony

Not every uniform in the Kingsland Veterans Day parade was a Navy uniform from Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base or the Navy Junior ROTC at Camden County High School. Cub Scout Pack 218 from St. Marys also marched Saturday, waving flags.

Navy Junior ROTC students march Saturday in the Kingsland Veterans Day parade.

KINGSLAND — Hundreds lined U.S. 17 Saturday for the annual Veterans Day parade, but they weren’t there long.

The parade, a little shorter on marchers and other entries compared to past years, took only about 15 minutes to pass any given point as it headed north. Some blamed Camden County High football team’s long road trip to Colquitt County Friday night — a 13-12 loss — for taking the band, football team and cheerleaders out of the parade.

Nonetheless, the school’s Navy Junior ROTC students did their part taking up a sizable portion of the parade.

Grand Marshal John F. Gwizdak of Woodbury, Ga., a past commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said it’s time to keep the focus on veterans although they are a small part of the population.

“Less than 1 percent is in harm’s way, but they take 100 percent of the bullets,’’ he said.

Counting auxiliaries, veterans organizations have about 1.6 members, down from a high of 2 million, but they still have a strong voice, he said.

Asked if worried about funding for veterans’ benefits in the coming years, Gwizdak said the past four years haven’t been bad and he expects that to be maintained in the coming years. A string of presidents have supported veterans’ programs and “Congress recognized you can’t send people off to war without taking care of them when they get back,’’ Gwizdak said.

When people in the military are hurt to the point that they can’t function the way they did before, their benefits shouldn’t be part of the budget process as other programs are, he said.

“When you raise your hand and say you’re going to do something for this country, the country also ought to do something for you,’’ he said.

Gwizdak served 20 years in the Army and was an infantry platoon leader and company commander in Vietnam.

After the parade, there was a recognition ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park. The park was the beneficiary of a yard sale and catfish dinner sales Saturday.